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Calamity Ganon
Calamity Ganon is the main antagonist and penultimate boss of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. He is the last Scourge, found at Hyrule Castle. He is an incomplete form that Ganon assumed when he was interrupted while trying to reincarnate himself. Biography Calamity Ganon first emerged in the distant past, but was defeated by an army of mechanical Guardians and four massive mechanical constructs called the Divine Beasts, that the Ancient Sheikah tribe developed with their unique technology. Ten thousand years later, a prophecy of Calamity Ganon's return drove King Rhoam of Hyrule to create an archaeology team to recover the Divine Beasts and Guardian army in preparation. They were successful in not only recovering these relics of the Sheikah's Ancient technology, but were also able to reactivate and use them. The King selected the hero chosen by the Master Sword, a young recruit of the royal army named Link. Link was appointed as the personal knight of his daughter, Princess Zelda after defeating a Guardian that went haywire during a field test. King Rhoam decided to create a group of warriors and protectors, the Champions among whom Zelda would be the Commander assisted by her knight, the Hylian Champion. King Rhoam tasked Zelda with recruiting a Champion from each race that had been entrusted with the Divine Beasts by the Sheikah in the past. However, all of this preparation proved to be in vain, as Calamity Ganon was prepared for Hyrule's attempt to repeat history; he sent four phantoms of himself, Waterblight, Windblight, Fireblight and Thunderblight Ganon, to corrupt the Divine Beasts and slay their Champions, while using his own dark power to take control of the Guardians and use them against the people of Hyrule. With the heroes' defenses crumbling, and even Link overwhelmed by the renewed assault, Zelda was able to use her divine power to purge the corrupted Guardians attacking them. However Link was badly injured and near death. Guided by the ancient voice of the Master Sword which only she could hear, Zelda had her Sheikah allies place Link in the Shrine of Resurrection to heal in stasis via the Slumber of Restoration. After entrusting the Master Sword to the Great Deku Tree, Zelda used her power to seal both herself and Calamity Ganon within Hyrule Castle. This catastrophic event was called the Great Calamity. Over the next century, Ganon bode his time within his prison, draining Zelda's divine power in an attempt to gain the strength to break free from the waning seal. His growing power allowed his Malice to spread throughout Hyrule, and following Link's resuscitation he entered a cocoon of Malice to regain physical form. Guided by the spirit of King Rhoam and his old ally Sheikah Elder Impa, Link defeated Ganon's servant and the leader of the Sheikah Yiga Clan, Master Kohga, as well as the Scourges of the Divine Beasts, freeing the Divine Beasts and the imprisoned spirits of their pilots who retook control to support Link against Calamity Ganon. Ganon's reincarnation was still incomplete by the time Link confronted him in the depths of the corrupted castle. The Champions attacked Ganon with their Divine Beasts weakening him. After a fierce battle, Calamity Ganon was struck down, disintegrating into eerie smoke; however, he soon reformed as the even more monstrous Dark Beast Ganon. Following his defeat as Dark Beast Ganon, he returns to his spectral Calamity form before being sealed away by Zelda. Appearance Calamity Ganon first appears as a boar-shaped specter made of Malice, possessing an enormous mouth, tusks, and glowing yellow eyes. In his partially-regenerated form, he is a spider-like abomination resembling the Blights he sent to corrupt the Divine Beasts, being composed primarily of solidified Malice augmented with the Ancient Sheikah technology. His upper body is roughly humanoid, with wild red hair and a skull-like head vaguely reminiscent of Ganondorf's visage. His lower body is a bloated mass of Malice half-plated in armor resembling the body of a Guardian Stalker, complete with two of its four-clawed limbs protruding from the back. Calamity Ganon has several arms all over his body; most are almost emaciated looking, save for a massive right arm that ends in a glowing orange blade similar to Fireblight Ganon's weapon. One of his left arms carries a blue spear similar to Waterblight Ganon, while another ends in a slightly smaller version of Windblight Ganon's beam cannon. He also has three mechanical limbs on his back, each with different energy blades; the left has a shear-like pincer, the middle has a hand with energy claws for digits, and the right has a small sword resembling the one used by Thunderblight Ganon. During the climactic final battle against Link, Calamity Ganon appears savage and almost mindless, which is heavily implied to be the result of his attempted resurrection being botched. However, in the events of the Great Calamity 100 years ago, Calamity Ganon retains some of Ganondorf’s original cunning and knowledge. He possesses Ganondorf’s ability to create phantoms (similar to the Phantom Ganon) in the form of the Scourges of the Divine Beasts, and successfully plotted to take over the Divine Beasts and the Guardian automata. He retains Ganondorf's ability to command monsters deploying stronger variants as Link defeats them even augmenting Bokoblins, Moblins, Lizalfos, and Lynels into powerful Silver variants. He also reanimates his deceased minions skeletons and even their horses as undead. Thanks to the Blood Moon he can resurrect the souls of slain monsters and reconstruct corrupted Guardians giving him essentially an immortal army with which he can terrorize Hyrule with. Beyond reincarnating himself and escaping his seal, it is unclear if Ganon seeks to conquer or destroy Hyrule. He is described as an ancient infinite evil that has plagued Hyrule and its Royal Family for millennia only to be defeated and sealed by a Princess of Hyrule and incarnation of the Hero Chosen by the Master Sword. As a result, Ganon recognizes both Link and Princess Zelda as serious threats. It is implied his defeat ten thousand years prior made him covet the power of ancient Sheikah technology as he becomes focused on corrupting and controlling the very weapons that defeated him showing he retains Ganondorf's lust for power which has always been a core aspect of his personality. In his Dark Beast Ganon form, Calamity Ganon is bestial and driven entirely by hatred and malice. Abilities Calamity Ganon can possess and corrupt Guardians, and has maintained that control despite being sealed by Zelda in Hyrule. He is also capable of reviving, reanimating, and empowering monsters. He revives fallen monsters, guardians, and other non-monster enemies such as Yiga Clan soldiers during the Blood Moon cycles. At night, he can reanimate dead Bokoblins, Moblins, Lizalfos, Hinox, and Horses into Stalkoblin, Stalizalfos, Stalnox, and Stalhorse respectively. He produces Malice, which can spawn the mindless Cursed Bokoblin, Cursed Moblin, and Cursed Lizalfos granting each a pitiful form of life-after-death. Ganon is also able to enhance Bokoblins, Moblins, Lizalfos, and Lynels into "Silver" variants, making them the strongest of their archetypes, except for the "Gold" variants found in Master Mode which are are said to be "Sliver" variants transformed by lightning. Calamity Ganon uses some abilities from Guardians and the four Scourges of the Divine Beasts during his final battle with Link at Hyrule castle. However the Master Sword reacts to Ganon's evil influence within the Guardians, Scourges, and areas like Hyrule Castle causing its true power as the Blade of Evil's Bane to awaken making it the ultimate weapon against the Great King of Evil. Ganon is also weak against ancient Sheikah technology originally created to combat him and Robbie's Anti-Calamity weaponry. Battle If any of the Divine Beasts were liberated before Link confronted Calamity Ganon, the fight will start with a cutscene where the spirits of the Champions that Link freed command their Divine Beasts to attack, blasting Ganon with a rain of energy beams. Each Champion's attack depletes one-eighth of Calamity Ganon's health. If all four were freed prior to the battle, he loses half of his health before the fight begins. If Link found the Master Sword prior to going to Hyrule Castle and entering the Sanctum, a short cutscene shows him drawing and igniting the blade's true power before the battle with Calamity Ganon begins. Most of Calamity Ganon's attacks are more elaborate versions of the moves used by his Blights. He can use the Waterblight's energy shockwave and spear throw, the Fireblight's burning blade swipes (horizontal or vertical) and charged fireball, the Thunderblight's lightning spikes, and the Windblight's tornado and laser blasts. He can fire powerful laser beams similar to the Guardian Stalker. He can also slash and stab at Link with his back appendages, and crawl on the wall to keep himself out of reach. After being reduced to half of his starting health (that is, the health he had after the Divine Beasts' attack), Calamity Ganon will glow orange, rendering him immune to damage. The only way to hurt him at this point is to make the aura disappear. Link can make the aura disappear by performing a Perfect Dodge, reflecting his projectiles (trident, laser beam, fireball, and bullets) back at him with a Perfect Guard or Daruk's Protection, or by using Urbosa's Fury. His aura also disappears for a brief moment after he attacks, so well-timed arrows or other attacks can hit him then. As with all of the Scourges, Calamity Ganon takes extra damage from Guardian or Ancient weaponry, and Ganon's traditional weakness, the Master Sword. Within the boss room, there is a Royal Claymore, a Royal Broadsword, a Royal Shield, a bundle of 10 Bomb Arrows, and a Royal Bow, all with random attributes. Non-canon appearances Calamity Ganon is a collectable spirit in the story mode "World of Light" in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Aside from this, the boss theme that plays when fighting it and the Scourges of the Divine Beasts is used for when fighting Ganon as a boss. Gallery Great Calamity (Breath of the Wild).jpg|Calamity Ganon above Hyrule Castle Calamity-Ganon-4.jpg|Link battling Calamity Ganon Category:The Legend of Zelda characters Category:Male video game characters Category:Video game bosses Category:Nintendo antagonists Category:Fictional demons Category:Fictional centenarians Category:Fictional mass murderers Category:Fictional characters with spirit possession or body swapping abilities Category:Fictional characters introduced in 2017